I hated asking, but the question burned in the back of my mouth. “Girls like me?”
“Yeah.” She smirked. “Nobodies like you. Freshman and forgettable.”
My lips were stiff. “Is he a senior?”
“Junior, but it doesn’t matter. He’s known, if you know what I mean. I have a hard time believing he just gave you a ride here. What’d you do? Blow him?”
“Why? Is that what you do to get rides?” I stepped closer. “Is that what you’re implying?”
“Maybe I was implying that that’s the only way someone like Caden would pay any attention to someone like you.”
God. She really was a bitch. “I thought you guys were nice.” I shook my head. “That’s the joke here. Not me.” I patted myself on the chest again. “Me looking up to you, thinking how cool you guys were, that’s the joke. I liked Avery.”
Claudia wasn’t the only one who could be cold. I iced my tone, letting her hear my disdain too. “Too bad about that. Too bad about you.”
She’d looked bored while I was talking, but now she perked up. “Wait a minute. Kevin is Caden’s fraternity brother.”
So now it was because of my stepbrother.
I reached for the wall. I needed it to ground me because I was about to launch at her, consequences be damned. “What does Kevin have to do with it?”
“Caden was being nice to you because of Kevin. That’s why you got a ride home, not because he’s interested in you or anything.” She looked me up and down again. “Can you really question why I was confused?” She laughed, moving past me down the hall. “Give Avery hell tomorrow. She’ll be groveling, because unlike me, she likes you for some stupid reason. Have fun!”
She left me alone in an empty hallway, with an empty feeling inside me.
I was back to square one of no friends. Lovely.
Claudia was right about one thing. Avery did apologize the next morning. She did it with bags under her eyes, oversized sweats on her body, messy hair, and a slight green tinge to her skin. She had a water bottle in her hand.
She was hungover.
I didn’t say anything about my encounter with Claudia. It wasn’t Avery’s fault her friend was a bitch, but when she invited me to dinner the next night with the same group of friends, I declined. She asked me to lunch the day after, and I had the same response. She wore a puzzled frown after that, but I didn’t think she was going to invite me anywhere else. I hoped it wouldn’t matter. My roommate would move in soon.
The next day was finally the official move-in day for freshmen, but even while the hallway was busy with people bringing in stuff and unpacking in their rooms, I sat alone in mine. That night I found out the reason.
Avery knocked on my door to let me know she was holding a floor meeting in a few minutes, and that I wasn’t getting a roommate.
“Why? What happened?”
She held a clipboard to her chest. “I got a phone call this morning, but I haven’t had the time to let you know. There was a death in the family, so she’s coming next semester. She’s starting late.”
“Oh.” I glanced over my shoulder to my room. It was all cozy, but just with my stuff. There was still an empty bed, an empty desk, an empty dresser, and an empty closet.
“Don’t get comfortable. They might move someone else in, or you’ll get lucky and have your own room for the semester.”
“When will I know?”
She lifted a shoulder. “People transfer in late all the time, or someone could ask for a room transfer. If you move your stuff around, just be prepared that you might have to move it back.”
“Okay.”
She smiled now, resuming the professional advisor demeanor she’d worn when she’d first met me and my parents. The Avery that had invited me to the party faded.
“I’ll see you at the meeting then?” She checked her phone. “You have two hours. The campus ice cream shop is open tonight just for incoming freshman, so I was going to invite everyone over there. It’ll be a great way to meet new people.”
During the meeting, Avery told me and my freshman floormates the rules as we shared similar nervous looks with each other. When she finished, she gave us a half hour to change or freshen up, or whatever we needed, before we were supposed to meet back in the hallway to go for ice cream.
I went back to my room, still alone, and puttered around for a few minutes. I was heading back out the door when my phone buzzed. I glanced down and saw a text from Kevin.
It was only three words. Can we talk? But those three words had my heart racing. My hand closed around the phone, and I couldn’t move for a second.